The Game
by Sleepwalkers
Summary: It was just supposed to be a game. Something fun to do when he was bored. It wasn't supposed to twist his brain into the mess it is now. No one was supposed to get hurt, and he wasn't supposed to drag her down with him. AH. Fax.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don****'****t own Maximum Ride.**

Names are fragile things. Nothing but a sequence of letters slapped onto your birth certificate. Your teachers use it to take attendance, your friends use it to call out to you in a crowd of people, supposedly it's an important part of who you are. He disagrees. If names could truly define who you are, his life would be easy. If that was the case he'd just simply be Nick Walker. That is the name that is on his birth certificate and that is who he should be. Unfortunately for him, it is not names that decide who a person is, it is the person behind the name.

Once upon a time, he was just Nick. Once upon a time, he knew who he was. Once upon a time, though he doesn't know how or when it happened, he became two people.

Nick and Fang.

Two names, two different people. It became a game. He shifted back and forth between the two. When he was tired of being Nick, he'd simply just choose to be Fang. When he couldn't handle being Fang anymore, he'd revert back to Nick. It was an easy game, switching between his personalities, a game he was very good at. Nick, and Fang.

Fang, or Nick?

Somehow, somewhere, the game got out of hand. He couldn't control it anymore. Sometimes he was Nick when he wanted to be Fang. Other times he was Fang when he needed to be Nick. More than often the two battled eachother. He'd become both of them and neither of them all at once. So who is he now?

Nick

He knows that Nick is who he should want to be. He's average, really. Average grades, an average house, average talents. There's nothing special about him. That's good! Good compared to the monster that Fang is. He should work hard to be just Nick. Just average, but he craves that little hint of something extra Fang gives him.

Fang.

Fang is anger, Fang is violence, and Fang is dangerous. Fang is someone who loves to feel his fist connect with someone elses skin just as much as he loves to feel his own skin break open. He is terrified of Fang, but he also can't live without him.

When he's Nick, he's weak. He's pathetic. He's scared of absolutely everything, but he isn't hurting people.

When he's Fang, he is a force to be reckoned with! No one messes with Fang. Fang is fearless and reckless and nothing hurts him. When he's Fang, hurting people is nothing more than a hobbie.

When he's both, he is a mess. Scared. Fearless. Weak. Empowered. The emotions don't mix well together. He can't handle them all at once.

He needs to be Nick.

He wants to be Fang.

He can't play this game anymore.

**AN:**

**This is just a prolouge. The actual chapters will be longer.**

**Um this idea kind of just popped out? So it might be terrible. Sorry about my grammar and spelling.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride.**

It wasn't his fault, not really. The game was an accident, he hadn't meant to be a player.

Back when he was just Nick, when his life was in order and he had all of his teeth, he was a notorious rule follower. Ever since he was old enough to understand what rules were, his mom had been spewing them out. Bring used dishes to the sink, keep your room tidy, don't skip school, do your homework, oh and don't forget to floss. All of the rules were followed with an empty threat, "Or else". Or else what? He'd wondered a countless amount of times. Would his mother ground him? Would she beat him? Send him away to boot camp? The threat itself was incomplete, and still it was enough to make him obey the rules.

One day though, completely by accident, he'd broken one of his mom's most important rules. Be home by 7, or else, she'd always warned. She was a little paranoid, and it was her belief that after 7 any and every criminal lurked around the city looking for prey. He'd always complied with the rule, where did he have to be anyways? He was a quiet kid and had never really put any effort into having a social life. He preffered to be at home whenever he could. It was a complete fluke and not an act of defiance that led to him being in a parking lot backed up against a car at 9PM.

His mom's occupation required her to work late at night, 8 at night to 4 in the morning shifts, to be exact. Then she'd come home and sleep until she had to get up again for work. This had left him in charge of most household chores, laundry, dishes, making dinner, and buying groceries. Every monday morning he'd find four $50 bills on the counter, and every monday after school he'd use those four $50 bills to go grocery shopping. Except for that particular Monday when he'd been held late at school to complete an english test. So there he was on Friday night and while most kids his age were at parties he was trying to figure out what he could possibly make for dinner. He wasn't picky by any means, but there was only so much he could do with the rejected ends of a loaf of bread and a half empty container of creamcheese. It was while staring sullenly at the limp aforementioned pieces of bread that he made the executive decision to go out and buy food right then. Sure it was 51 minutes past his curfew, but his mom wasn't home, and if she did manage to find out she'd understand, right? Besides, the store was only a 15 minute walk away.

So there he was, his shoes slapping against wet pavement as walked to the local supermarket. Raindrops chased each other through the sky as they fell from the dark clouds hovering above. Of course it was raining on the one night he went out, _of course._

Pulling his jackets sleeves down in hopes of easing the numb feeling the cold rain had brought to them he questioned, not for the first time, what could have possibly possessed him to tear the hood of his coat off in 8th grade. Was it so he could fit in? Was it for conveniance? Was it because he was being a snot nosed kid who wanted to make his mom mad? He could never remember, but not one rainy day went by when he didn't regret it. Especially on that night when cold drops of water turned his ears red and made his teeth chatter. If you ignored the fact that he'd nearly had his ears freeze right off of his head, the walk to the store went off without a hitch. He wasn't splashed by moving vehicles or snatched by gun toting hoodlums, what was his mom so worried about?

It wasn't until he got to the store that the real trouble started. Now he knew he wasn't stupid, but sometimes he made stupid mistakes. He'd somehow managed to forget to stuff the shopping list into his pocket, and instead he'd held it tightly in his hand the whole way there. The ending result? A soggy piece of paper with a garbled mess of eligible ink stains. Muttering a slew of curses under his breath he stalked into the store and selected a cart. A cart that just so happened to rattle when it rolled and had a tendancy to veer left when he was trying to walk straight. The shopping trip was off to a fantastic start. Like every other trip to the store he'd started this one by heading off to find the milk. He didn't particularily like milk, and his mom was lactose intolerant, but everyone he knew always had milk. So, he figured that having milk in your fridge was a vital step to having a normal retrieving a carton of milk that no one would be drinking the trip escalated into a series of events that had him wishing he'd stayed home. Between struggling to keep his cart straight and trying to remember what his mom wanted he'd somehow managed to get into a fight with a grumpy old lady. After insisting that no, he was not rude, he just didn't have cash and so he couldn't donate a dollar to her charity, he'd had just about enough of his little excursion. Having successfully waded through crowds of people and collected the things he thought he needed, he braved the checkout. Checkout was always a tedious process for him as it involved being surrounded by lines of impatient people as less than happy to be there cashiers clicked away at a register. He managed to survive it. When he finally got out of the damned store he could have danced. Could've being the key term, he figured dancing around in dirty puddles as sheets of rain pounded down on him wouldn't be as fun as it may have sounded. Maybe he should have danced, maybe if he'd just danced off into the night instead of dawdling about in the parking lot he wouldn't have been grabbed roughly by the shoulder and pushed into a car.

He wasn't scared right away, he'd thought maybe someone had just tripped, reached out for support, and found his shoulder. Looking back at it now, he knows it was a ridiculous theory, but it would have been better than what actually happened. After regaining his balance he'd looked up, ready to glare at culprit. Instead he looked up and a soft, "Oh," fell from his lips. This was what his mother was worried about. Two men who looked like they'd eaten The Incredible Hulk for breakfast standing right there in front of him. The way they puffed their chests out to make themselves look bigger made it plainly obvious that they were trying to intimidate him, and it sure worked. Now he was scared.

He'd seen lots of movies where kids were crowded by bigger people and each time a different scene played out. Some where mugged, others stabbed to death, and hey, some fell in love with their attackers and lived happily ever after. Sadly, he didn't think that particular scenario was in his future. He waited, waited to see if they'd pull out any weapons or if they'd make any threats. He figured if he just stood there and look distressed someone would notice. They where in the middle of a crowded parking lot, after all. He knew he was screwed when he noticed people noticing, giving him wide eyed glances, only to turn their heads away and scurry to their cars desperate to not be involved. If appreciation for the human race could be measured on a scale of 1-10, his would've have dropped from a 6 to a solid -7. "Yeah," one of the men said, almost apologetically, "People are to concerned with their own problems to help you." His companion chuckled, like it was a joke the two had passed between eachother before. "Anyways kid, we're hungry." _Oh no, _he'd thought, _I__'__m being attacked by cannibals. _"So we're gonna take your money and buy some food, kay?" Oh, well it was better than than cannibals atleast.

He wouldn't have really had a problem with lending the guys a bit of money, but he was now broke himself. "Yeah, I just spent all of mine, sorry." He made a move to leave, only to have a hand pressed into his shoulder.

"Yeah, like we don't here that every day. You can give us your damn money or we can knock you around a little and take it."

Knock him around? Couldn't they specify? He had to think fast, because he did not want to find out what knocking him around meant. He could run, though he'd probably end up thrown against the car. He could try reasoning with them, but they did not seem like the reasonable type. He could scream like a little girl in hopes of someone doing something, but he figured they would have already helped him if they were going to. He searched his mind desperately for any solution that may have presented itself, and found nothing. He was trapped."So, kid?"

"Look, I really don't have-" A sharp pain racing up his right leg cut his scentence off. He gasped as a pain in his left leg mimicked the one in his right. It took all of his willpower to stay standing as the man threw another hard kick to his right leg. "Stop," he hissed, and loud bellowing laughter ensued.

He clenched his fingers into fists and thrusted his hands out, a pathetic act of self defense. The accident. It was completely an accident that his wrist twisted the right way, that his left fist connected with one of their faces. An accident that he felt something hot run down his fingers. Blood, running out of of his attackers nose in a steady stream of red. Had Nick broken his nose? He never found out. While his attackers pressed hands to the bloodied nose, one of them screaming that his face had been broken, Nick took the opportunity to run.

He took off running home as fast as he could. When he got home he slipped off the grocery bags from where they'd somehow managed to stay, their plastic straps clinging to his arm. When he made it to his room he locked his door behind him and fell into his bed. Still, he layed there as still as he possibly could, listening to his heart thump, thump, thumping in his chest. _Was that it?_ He thought, there was something boiling up inside of him. He'd been a victim his whole life. A victim of his mothers rules, a victim of his dads bad habits, a victim of bullies. Oh a countless amount of bullies who thought it was fun to pick fun at him because of things he couldn't control. That day he'd been a victim of the kind of dangerous people his mom had warned him about for 16 years, and all it had taken for them to leave him alone was him smashing one of their faces up a bit. _Was that it?_ He laughed.

He'd always been told that violence wasn't the answer, and before that day he'd believed it whole heartedly. Now though? How could he believe that now? After he'd just solved what could have been a very big problem with violence. Not only had it saved him, he'd enjoyed hurting that guy, it had felt good. He knew, that he shouldn't have had those thoughts. They were thoughts that belonged to a crazy person, not him. He couldn't help it though, the thoughts tumbled over each other one after the other.

Nick should have squished the thoughts down and locked them away. He should've told his mom, told the school guidance councellor, told anyone. Maybe they could have stopped it. How was he supposed to know though? How was he supposed to guess that the thoughts weren't just passing through? If Nick had known then that there was a monster growing inside him he would have told them to lock him up and throw away the key. The problem was he didn't know, and a month later the game had begun.

**AN: **

**More Maximum Ride characters are showing up in the next chapter and they should actually be in character, unless I screw them up. Sorry that this was boring.**

**Wow, thanks for the reviews and follows. I wasn****'****t expecting anyone to read this so just a few people reading it made me really happy.**

**Sorry about any grammar and spelling errors.**


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